New data reveals areas where most people accused of crimes are being monitored on bail in NSW

Eye-opening figures have revealed the list of NSW regions where most people accused of crimes are being monitored on bail. See if your community made the list.

Communities across NSW where the highest number of police compliance checks for alleged criminals out on bail can be revealed, in new figures released by Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

The Sutherland Shire, Mount Druitt and Ryde have emerged as the bail capitals of Sydney, in new statistics detailing which local police districts had the highest number of bail compliance checks carried out by officers in the last financial year.

The overall number of bail compliance checks in 2022-23 tallied 132,000 – down 4.9 per cent on the previous year, but was higher than the four previous years.

More than half the overall figure – or a total of 75,000 – were checks on a person who identified as Aboriginal.

The number of annual checks topped 132,000 last financial year.

There were also 29,896 checks carried out on people aged under 18, including 81 checks on children aged just 10, and 345 checks on children aged 11.

Areas of regional NSW accounted for the highest number of over compliance checks with the New England police district, which takes in towns including Moree, topping the list with 6803 checks.

The Oxley police district ranked second with 4928 checks, followed by Orana Mid Western (4620) and Central Western (4286).

In Greater Sydney, the Sutherland police district had the highest number of checks (4135), followed by Mount Druitt (3997), Ryde (3959), Inner West (3954) and Eastern Beaches (3166).

The Sutherland police district had the highest number of checks in Sydney.

Bail compliance checks are conducted by police to check a person charged with criminal offences is abiding by bail conditions imposed by the courts.

The court imposed conditions for a person released on bail can include strict requirements such as adhering to curfews, submitting to breath tests, or living at a specific address.

Gunnedah Mayor Jamie Chaffey – who has been campaigning for an inquiry into regional crime rates – said the bail statistics for regional NSW were not surprising.

“Our crime rates are rising at a faster rate than city areas yet we have significantly fewer police and resources than our city cousins – people in our community are scared,” he said.

Gunnedah Mayor Jamie Chaffey.

Mr Chaffey said police shortages in regional areas meant the large number of bail checks could also be leaving an overworked police force stretched to carry out other front line duties.

“Because of the demand on police, you rarely see proactive policing and officers walking on the street because there simply aren’t enough of them,” he said.

“In Gunnedah, we have a state of the art new $8 million police station that’s capable of holding a full workforce yet it has to close at night because of the lack of resources.”

Bail checks are carried out by NSW Police.

Alana Singleton, a former police officer of 18 years, said bail compliance checks can be time consuming.

“It’s a monotony because you’ve got people coming in and out of a police station all day doing checks as well as checks being done at people’s homes,” she said.

“It can be time consuming but there can be significant repercussions if it’s not done and not done properly.”

The high number of bail checks carried out in the New England and Oxley regions correlates with latest Bureau of Crime statistics showing towns within the police districts including Moree and Armidale had some of the highest rates of crime per population in NSW.

Alana Singleton, a former police officer who served for almost two decades.

Darrel Smith, chief executive of Miyay Birray youth service in Moree, has raised concerns over the high number of bail compliance checks carried out on Aboriginal people, particularly on youth.

“Some of the bail checks are for minor and first-time offences and when you look at what young people are subjected to it’s over the top,” he said.

“It’s targeting our youth who can have a lot of different conditions apply to them because of their circumstances and I think it’s very unfair.

Police districts in regional NSW had the highest number of compliance checks.

“We’ve talked to police about it – especially the amount of checks per week being carried out and also the timing of checks which can wake up whole households at 2-3am in the morning.”

The NSW Police statistics show the Coffs Clarence police district recorded the largest increase in bail checks between 2022 and 2023 with numbers soaring 138 per cent from 965 to 2301.

Also rising by more than 50 per cent were Wollongong (up 91.4 per cent), Lake Macquarie (up 80.7 per cent), Burwood (up 61.8 per cent) and the South Sydney police district (up 54.8 per cent).

The Blacktown police district had the largest increase over the last five years with the number of checks jumping from 204 to 2789 last year – up 1267 per cent.

There have been declines in some parts of the state including Kings Cross police district where the number of bail checks dropped from 2899 to 991 over the last two years.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has rejected calls for a parliamentary inquiry into regional crime saying “waiting for an inquiry to hand down a report will only delay actions to tackle the problem”.

In a statement, a NSW Police spokeswoman said bail compliance checks are a proactive policing strategy to ensure people on bail are complying with the conditions they are subject to and to reduce recidivism.

“They are conducted by officers when front line duties allow and often during high-saturation police operations targeting known offenders and crime hotspots,” the spokeswoman said.